You can easily import data from Facebook and Instagram's donation platform into Beacon using our pre-built import library template. We'll create all the appropriate donors, fundraisers, and their fundraising pages for you!
Tip: You may also want to add the PayPal Giving Fund template if you're importing those files too, though it's not necessary if you're only using PayPal Giving Fund for Facebook donations.
Don't worry, even though there's some crossover in data, our templates have been designed to play nicely together! 😅
Initial setup
If you're wanting to import from Facebook for the first time, there's a few extra fields and options you'll want to add to your Beacon account before you create your template and run your import. These will help all of your data import into your account seamlessly, and ensure everything links together as it should.
Step one: Create a new field on People
Since you get very few email addresses from Facebook contacts, we're going to create a field to store Facebook's IDs instead. This will ensure that if folks are fundraising or donating multiple times they won't be duplicated.
Open any Person record
Create a new short text field called 'Facebook ID'
Step two: Add new drop-down options
To properly attribute incoming donations and fundraising pages to the correct platform, we're going to add options to some 'Source' drop-down lists.
Open any Payment record, edit the 'Source' field, and add 'Instagram' as an option
Open any Fundraising page record, edit the 'Source' field, and add 'Facebook' and 'Instagram' as options
If you have the Finance element, open any Payout record, edit the 'Source' field, add 'PayPal Giving Fund' as an option
Step three: Create your template and adjust settings
Let's add the template, ready for final tweaks!
Head to Import data > Manage templates
Choose 'Install from library' and add 'Facebook - Donations' from the template library drop-down
Our Facebook template has been pre-configured for most settings, but we'll want to map some columns to your new field, and adjust our deduplication settings.
Map the following columns:
Note: When mapping your columns, you'll need to toggle on the 'Show additional field options' to see all of the fields below.
Donor PSID
Map to →Payer (Person) > Facebook ID
Campaign Owner PSID
Map to →
Fundraiser (Person) > Facebook ID
Fundraising page > Fundraiser > ID (Smart column)
Map to →
Fundraising page > Fundraiser > Facebook ID
Set missing deduplication as follows:
People (Payer, Fundraiser, Fundraising page > Fundraiser):
Facebook ID(Only create)
Success: All done! You're ready to import your data.
Importing your data
Warning: Facebook IDs are long numbers that can easily get accidentally changed with formatting when opened in Excel or Google Sheets. Upload directly after your initial download, or see the FAQ section for more info.
Go to Import data > Run import
Upload your CSV from Facebook, and start the import
Frequently Asked Questions
Is fee information available from the Facebook report?
Yes and no! Since fees are charged by the processor, PayPal Giving Fund, this information is not included in your Facebook report.
However, Facebook and PayPal Giving Fund do make public how fees are calculated, which we've added in Smart columns in the import template. These fees will be correct for donation in any currency donating to a UK charity. If your charity is based outside the UK, you may need to adjust the calculations for fees.
Is Gift Aid information available from the Facebook report?
No. Unfortunately, Facebook no longer include information on whether someone gave a Gift Aid declaration as part of their donation, so donations will not be marked as 'Gift Aid claimed'. As a precaution, we set all donations as 'Gift Aid allowed?' unchecked so that they are not added to Gift Aid claims in Beacon.
Your Gift Aid will still be collected and paid to you, but it is now processed by PayPal Giving Fund. Additionally, the Gift Aid data from PayPal Giving Fund is insufficient to be able to link back to the specific Facebook donations, so it's not possible to reconcile the two data sets.
Why have my payment IDs changed / How do I safely edit the CSV?
Because Facebook payment IDs are very long numbers, Excel (and often Google Sheets) automatically display them in a rounded up/down 'scientific' number format, instead of their full format.
- VS -
If you then save this file, the displayed values (e.g. 2.36198E+15) get saved instead of the correct value (e.g. 2361983273916210). When the scientific number is imported into Beacon it gets converted back to a full number, but since it's been rounded up or down by Excel it will be incorrect (e.g. 2361980000000000). This can lead to unrelated payments being merged into one.
To avoid this issue, there are two different solutions:
Import the file directly after download from Facebook, without opening it in Excel or Google Sheets. Beacon will then be able to import the full, correct ID.
Or, if you need to edit the spreadsheet before uploading, format the Payment ID column to display the values correctly before saving.
How to format the Payment ID column in Excel:
Select the column
Right click on the selection and click 'Format cells...'
Choose Category: 'Custom' and then Type: '0'
Click 'OK'
Note: For Google Sheets; highlight the column, then go to Format > Number > 0
You should now see the full number in the Payment ID column, and can safely save as a CSV file for import. If you open the file again later, you will likely need to repeat these steps.
How do I download my Facebook report?
You can download your donations report from within your Facebook page.
Click 'Settings' at the top of your page
Click 'Donations' in the side menu
Click the 'Donation Reports' button
Choose 'Multi-day Transaction Report', enter the date range you'd like, and fill in your email address
Click 'Export Reports'
Are payout dates accurate for when funds will be paid to us by PayPal Giving Fund?
PayPal Giving Fund's expected payout dates are estimated, as the exact date that money will be paid to you varies each month. Once paid, you can simply update the Payout with the correct date.
Tip: If you're also running a PayPal Giving Fund import, our templates will update the Payout with the exact date!
Are all people in our report imported?
No, we exclude some people so that you don't have lots of anonymous or duplicate contacts! We will not create:
Anonymous people
People without an ID (these would be low-value name-only contacts)